Caleb's Crossing in Reading with Style

Apr 25, 2024 Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: women, twenty-first-century, physical, awards-langum-prize

I have enjoyed others by Geraldine Brooks and was glad to pick this up from some Friends of the Library book sale in years past. It sat on my bookshelf, patiently waiting my attention. I have commented before that sometimes you pick up a book at just exactly the right time. I don’t know why this was the right time for this book, but I did enjoy it thoroughly.

This is good historical fiction based on fact. The Caleb of the title was the first Native American to graduate from Harvard. I knew this g ...more

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Jul 06, 2011 Bucket rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviewed, history, literary, diversity, religion, tragedy, friendship, culture, women, hella-sweet-book-club-read

Brooks has written four novels (so far) and I've now read and enjoyed the two least famous/lauded of them. I'm making the (perhaps dangerous?) assumption that the other two novels will be even better and I'm looking forward to them.

While I think Year of Wonders was better, I very much enjoyed Caleb's Crossing. Like Year of Wonders, it's a fictional story based upon a tiny kernal of history - in this case the true kernal is that there was a young Native American who called himself Caleb who atte Brooks has written four novels (so far) and I've now read and enjoyed the two least famous/lauded of them. I'm making the (perhaps dangerous?) assumption that the other two novels will be even better and I'm looking forward to them.

While I think Year of Wonders was better, I very much enjoyed Caleb's Crossing. Like Year of Wonders, it's a fictional story based upon a tiny kernal of history - in this case the true kernal is that there was a young Native American who called himself Caleb who attended Harvard in the 1660s. Brooks invents a strong yet sensitive and highly intelligent young female (seems to be her thing, and it's one of mine too!) named Bethia to tell the story of early colonialism and evangelism in New England and how things moved from wanting to convert the natives to wanting to destroy them. The novel is chock-full of tragedy, but so was colonial life in the 17th century - it was a tough time for virtually everyone, let alone those who were non-white and/or non-male.

This brings me to the themes that surround the story of Caleb and Bethia: gender and race in the early American colonies. Both are tackled effectively and Brooks does an excellent job of giving us hope for the characters we grow to love by allowing them to transcend their era in small believable ways. Hand in hand with this, she avoids the temptation to put modern ideas and options into the novel that sound good but would have been unlikely or impossible at the time (such as a romance between Bethia and Caleb, or Bethia taking a completely feminist stand, or any character becoming concerned with environmental issues or the problems of organized religion). It's hard to see Bethia submit to her brother without a second thought, but its also real.

Brooks always seems to do her research. I'm no expert on the period, but no facet of the story or small detail about daily life seemed out of place. There were instances of long-gone spellings and phrasings of things to authenticate Bethia's voice and Brooks succeeded in giving her narrator a believable quiet strength.

Themes: race, gender, colonialism, Native Americans, religion, evangelism, culture clash, education, friendship, tragedy, women, historical fiction ...more

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Apr 13, 2013 Kathleen (itpdx) rated it really liked it

Since this history was totally unknown to me, I "cheated" and read the afterward first to find out what actual history the author hung her story on. This is an interesting piece of history and Brooks does a very good job of telling her story. She incorporates the religious disagreements of the time, the widely different attitudes toward the "salvages" or Indians, how education of boys and girls was done (or not), the difficulty providing food, clothing and housing in the wilderness of the time a ...more

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Dec 04, 2016 Rachel N. rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-2016, ncaa, coming-of-age, historical-fiction, native-american, massacheusteus

Despite the title this book is really about the fictional character Bethia Mayfield. Bethia grows up on what is now Martha's Vineyard in the 1660's. She meets a Native American boy she calls Caleb. Through his connection to Bethia, Caleb becomes "civilized" and ends up going to Harvard. I've enjoyed Brooks other books but I never really connected to Bethia. I enjoyed the part on the island but when the action switches to the mainland I was much less interested in the story. ...more

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May 03, 2011 Joanna rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, 2015-read, rws-2015-fall

A wonderful history of Martha's Vineyard native who makes his way to Harvard and back. I wanted to read this over the summer when I was heading to Martha's Vineyard, but didn't quite get to it then. I loved the lead female character here--Bethia should perhaps have merited title character status as the book was as much her story as Caleb's. Brooks is an impressive writer and handles passages in the style of the time as deftly as she does inner monologue of people of the time. I don't love all of ...more

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